TPM Chapter 1 - It's a Culture

In my introductory blog about TPM, I mentioned that the path to implementing TPM is a challenging one and to my knowledge it fares better than the other management concepts. The reason why I say that is simple: TPM is a cultural change.

A cultural change requires a combined effort from all the departments in the organization but the most important support required is from the Top Management. Top Management can be the biggest obstacle in the implementation of TPM. If they understand the importance of TPM and its benefits, the journey becomes a tad bit easier. But the challenge still remains as the mindset of the managers & the middle managers need to be changed. One needs to sit with all the managers and middle managers and make them understand the importance of implementing TPM in our organization and asking for their inputs and support in implementing it. If they are not convinced then they can be a hindrance at every step but if they get involved in the implementation then the journey becomes a cakewalk. Once you have the Top Management and Middle managers support then comes the execution part which is done by the shop-floor workers. Now how effectively TPM is implemented depends upon the skill and knowledge of the floor people. Not much resistance comes from them as they are order-takers and will do whatever you say. But don’t forget, their acceptance and understanding of the concept is very important as we want to have a bottom’s up approach through TPM. They’ll take time to understand the concept and make mistakes too but at the same time ideas will start coming from them and that’s what we want to achieve.

At SKAPS, we had full support from the Top Management but there was some resistance from the managers initially which was expected. As mentioned earlier you need to take your managers into confidence by talking out their apprehensions and concerns if any and that’s what we did at SKAPS. Now we have active involvement of the managers in all the TPM related activities. The shop-floor team that was identified to take this project was just amazing - Young, hard-working and knowledgeable. Since this is a cultural change a young team is advisable as they will accept the change much faster than the veterans of the company.

Remember this: TPM is a philosophy, a culture and it’s a long journey with fruitful results.

Nisarg Vyas

TPM & Business Development Manager

SKAPS Industries

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